Ridding Vieques, Puerto Rico of bombs a perilous task/Contractors Fearing for Lives!

By ANDREW O. SELSKY, Associated Press Writer Sun Feb 4, 2:19 PM ET

VIEQUES NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Puerto Rico - One misstep on this former
U.S. Navy bombing range can be fatal.


For decades, warships and planes hammered the Naval Training Range on Vieques with live rounds before it was closed in April 2003 after years of protests against the danger and the din — leaving thousands of unexploded bombs, rockets, cluster bombs and other munitions lurking under dense foliage.
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The Navy began war maneuvers on Vieques in 1948 after expropriating land and paying as little as $53 an acre, subjecting those who live on the rest of the island to thunderous, window-rattling blasts. Marines practiced amphibious landings, supported by warplanes and ships.

An Associated Press reporter and photographer — the first journalists allowed onto the former bombing range since the cleanup began in August 2005 — saw bombs and other ordnance scattered over wide areas.

The eastern half of the island containing the former training site is as beautiful as it is deadly.

Ringed by beaches, tidal pools and crystalline waters, it is blanketed with munitions ranging from World War II leftovers to those still used today, including 2,000-pound bombs.

Technicians have detonated more than 3,400 munitions-related items containing 10.6 tons of explosives on the site, according to the Navy. More than 175,000 items, including bomb fragments, have been carted away.

"It really gets your attention when you walk out there," Carlton Finley, a Navy ordnance disposal expert, said as he drove onto the range in an SUV with contract worker Joe Riner. "You've got to keep your focus, watch where you're putting your foot, and step lightly."

The SUV rolled past a beach pocked with 20-foot wide craters and littered with missile fins and bombs. One bomb had hit with such force that it knifed into the earth and ricocheted upward, leaving its nose aiming at the sky. Another, stretching more than seven feet, lay partly hidden under bushes.

"That's an MK-82, a 500-pound bomb," Riner said coolly.

That round might be a practice one, loaded with just enough explosive to send out smoke to mark where it landed. Or it might be a real bomb, capable of killing anyone within hundreds of feet.

"We consider every item to be high-explosive until we can positively determine otherwise," Riner said, his jaw bulging with a plug of tobacco.

The protest against the bombing range by islanders and some American celebrities began in 1999 when a Marine jet dropped two bombs off target and killed a Puerto Rican security guard.

Cleaning the area has proved more difficult than expected, with much of the 14,500-acre site covered with tangled vegetation reaching 15 feet high. The Navy says up to 9,000 acres may contain munitions.

Officials had expected to clear 400 acres in seven months, but it has taken almost a year-and-a-half to finish just 235 acres, said Daniel Rodriguez of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the cleanup.

more at.......

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070204/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/vieques_the_bombs;_ylt=AuLsC5YUnOlsblq8WkibWR39xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-

DOD fought so hard against giving Vieques up. Really a dangerous situation.

a very similar case

what a beautiful place. i had ever other afternoon off and i'd go to red beach and have it all to myself. sometimes i'd get up in the morning and go outside and there would be wild horses grazing
30 feet away.